Characteristic of Young Learners

Before discussing about characteristic of young learners, first we must know who are young learners and then we can understand their characters.  Young learners are someone who learns when they are young or we can say that young learner is children who learn about 7-12 years old. Teaching English for Young Learners is guiding and facilitating Young Learners for their activities in learning, knowing, understanding, and comprehending ideas, attitudes values , skills, and information of English using tricks and strategies which will be used in changing and redefining their thought forward their daily surrounding situation as a foreign languages learners.

Some young learners have their own characteristic, namely :

1. They are imaginative. Use realia or pictures to teach new vocabulary related to concrete meanings.

2. They are imaginative but may have some difficulties distinguishing between imagination and real world.

3. They have short attention span. So teachers should vary their techniques to break the boredom. they should give varied activities as handwriting , songs , games etc.

4. They differ in their experience of language. Treat them as a unit , don't favor those who know some English at the expense of those who do not know.

5. They are less shy than older learners. Ask them to repeat utterances , resort to mechanical drills.

6. They are very active. Try to ask them to play games , role play dialogues and involve them in competitions.

7. They enjoy learning through playing. young learners learn best when they learn through games. Let games be an essential part of your teaching.

8. They are less shy than older learners.

9. They enjoy imitating and skillful in listening accurately and mimicking what they have heard.

10. They respond well to rewards from the teacher.

11. They respond well to praising. Always encourage them and praise their work.

           

From those characteristics we found that there are many differences between young learners and adult, who has reverse characteristics from young learners, teacher have to make a different way to teach them. Teacher have to pay attention when we want to teach them. Teacher for young learners should have quality and also have prepared themselves concern with young learners. Teacher have to know their needs, emotion and their interest in order to success teaching them. Teacher also have to adjust self with them so they can learn the material given by us. Teacher is the key role in teaching young learners, when teachers can adjust themselves with the children, their teaching will work smoothly. The better teacher know them, the better they will get the result. Teaching young learners indeed challenging, but with well-preparations teaching them will be pleasing.

. In teaching them, teacher have to make joyful atmosphere for each of them. Teacher also have to help them anytime. Teacher have to give them reward for every positive things that they have done in learning because they are very like rewards. Giving them good score, presents, even praise will increase their will in learning. They will enthusiast in learning. Giving them courage words will affect their will too. In teaching them teacher have to cover the knowledge with joy. Giving them instruction and objective of the material should in interesting ways.

Young learner is kid, they will only focus on what attract their attention. so they will just interested to their toys. They are curious about everything and never hesitate to ask everything about it even critical sometimes because of their high curiosity. They also learn and memorize very quickly, especially from their own experience in doing something. Generally, they are not shy to express their expression although sometimes we find some children is shy. Their attitude also changes often as their mood. So the teacher must have a lot of innovation and a variety ofways to teach them so that they do not quickly get bored.

References :

Brenda Brendon : Characteristic of young learners

(http://brendabrendon.blogspot.com/2012/12/characteristic-of-young-learners.html)

 Characteristic of young learners
(http://farwaniya03.tripod.com/id6.html)

The characteristic of Young Learners English Language Essay
(http://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/the-characteristic-of-teaching-young-learners-english-language-essay.php)